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BARNERT TEMPLE’S 160 YEAR HISTORY - NOW IN PRINT!
 Our longtime member and Temple historian, Cipora O. Schwartz, has written a book on the history of Barnert Temple. Entitled An American Jewish Odyssey, American Religious Freedom and The Nathan Barnert Memorial Temple, it chronicles the Temple’s 160 years of rich history. Replete with photos and memorabilia the book is a fascinating look at our Temple from its genesis in Paterson to its present-day home in Franklin Lakes.
Read below to learn more about this fascinating book. Proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the main library in Paterson and to Barnert Temple’s archives. Purchase your copy today by downloading the order form or visiting Amazon.com.
At 160, Barnert Looks Forward and Back Published in the Jewish Standard on 10/26/2007
 American religious freedom enabled everyone in this country to worship — or not worship," says Cipora O. Schwartz, author of the new book "An American Jewish Odyssey: American Religious Freedom and the Nathan Barnert Temple" (Ktav Publishing House). "I’m just using Barnert as an example of the trajectory taken by one group of people."
The book, which took the long-time congregant eight years to write, was published in honor of the temple’s 160th anniversary this year. Barnert, which is Reform, is the oldest Jewish congregation in the state, founded in Paterson in 1847
Schwartz’s book describes a quintessential example of the American Jewish experience, with the growing religious freedom afforded to Jewish and other immigrant groups in America. That freedom enabled them to grow and prosper, and in return contribute to the growth and prosperity of the United States, she notes.
"Within Paterson, the Jewish population was both vibrant and a great resource for all of the city," says Frishman, "perhaps best illustrated through Mayor Barnert. His sense of philanthropy and the civic duty he demonstrated really laid the foundation for what this community is all about."
Schwartz did most of her research in the Judaica division of the New York Public Library, the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark, the Passaic County Historical Society, the American Jewish Historical Society in New York, and the main branch of the Paterson Public Library. She also reviewed the congregation’s monthly bulletin back to 1922 and minutes of meetings from the 1880s, as well as records of income and outlay from a 19th-century ledger.
The book contains chapters devoted to Nathan Barnert, Rabbi Max Raisin, a well-known author who led the congregation for 25 years, and Rabbi Martin Freedman, who was active in civil rights with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and who served as religious leader for 38 years. The author also relied on a number of oral histories she conducted "10 or 15 years ago," with people in the congregation who were sixth- and seventh-generation members, or who had personally known Raisin and Freedman.
"From 1867 to the present, we’ve only had 22 rabbis," says Frishman, who has been there since 1995 and who is the only woman who has served as spiritual leader. "My hunch is that prior to 1898, most of the leaders were not necessarily rabbis."
 | | Barnert Temple at its Centennial (1947) | | |
The congregation began when five Paterson citizens — Edward Harris, Sigmund Blunauer, Barhard Raskam, Abraham Steiber, and Jacob Rheim — were selected as trustees of Cong. B’nai Jeshurun. They drew up a certificate of incorporation that was delivered to the town clerk and then submitted to the state legislature. The petition was approved on Dec. 22, 1847. Services were held in individual homes until 1853, when members gathered for services over a shoe store on Main St. In 1858, they rented a room in a building on West Street, then in 1860 bought a private residence at 9 Mulberry St., which was their home for 17 years. The group acquired a one-story structure at 124 Van Houten St. in 1878, where they stayed until 1892, when groundbreaking took place on Broadway and Straight St. for a new temple.
B’nai Jeshurun was dedicated as the Nathan Barnert Memorial Temple on Sept. 17, 1894. Barnert had served as Paterson’s mayor for two terms. He also built and donated the Barnert Memorial Hospital on Broadway and the Daughters of Miriam Home for the Aged. During his mayorial terms, he donated his monthly salary to charitable and needy organizations of all faiths.
In 1959 the congregation bought the Carroll estate on Derrom Avenue. Plans for a new building were drawn up, and the prize-winning synagogue, designed by the chair of the architecture department at Columbia University, opened during the High Holy Days of 1964. But Paterson was changing, and so was its Jewish population, which increasingly left the city for the nearby suburbs of Franklin Lakes, Fair Lawn, Ridgewood, Glen Rock, and Wyckoff. Barnert Temple followed, moving into a newly built building on Route 208 in Franklin Lakes in 1987.
Proceeds from the sale of "An American Jewish Odyssey" will go to the main library in Paterson and to Barnert Temple’s archives. Schwartz has donated copies to the Paterson libraries, the mayor’s office, the high schools, and the historic preservation commission. The $40 book is available on the temple’s Website, www.barnerttemple.org and through barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com. |
